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It looks like Supreme Court
Justice Samuel Alito’s wife was the instrumental one in hanging an upside-down
American flag in their yard. She joins
Justice’s Clarence Thomas’ wife in providing us with a prejudiced SCOTUS. You
can’t tell me that these spouses cannot influence their husbands. We cannot have SCOTUS decisions based on
‘pillow talk.’ Justice Alito is as much
out of tune with America as is Justice Thomas.
Unfortunately, demands that these two prejudiced Justices recuse
themselves on certain cases has repeatedly
failed.
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| Upside-down flag on Justice Alito's lawn is a sign of distress |
Perhaps it would be best to
insist that on appointment to the SCOTUS, all married Justices were required to
file for divorce.
JL
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Brown vs. Board of Education Anniversary
Friday marked the seventieth
anniversary of the Brown vs Board of Education decision, desegregating schools,
based on the Fourteenth Amendment.
Heather Cox Richardson’s posting (dated May 16) on ‘Letters from an American’ chronicles the efforts of the Republican Party to destroy democracy and the intent of that Amendment. Each day provides us with more and more proof that the most un-American organization in the country is the Republican Party. Check it out at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-16-2024/comments or by CLICKING HERE to learn about the undemocratic movements of which that party consists or represents. At a minimum, it makes it clear that a vote for any Republican is a vote against the Constitution and of course, the Declaration of Independence.
JL
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Israeli Extremists are the Problem
Should American support of Israel include silence about the role of extremists, upon whom Benjamin Netanyahu depends to remain in office? Check out how the Israeli government, now controlled by them, supports lawlessness on the West Bank, preventing a real solution for the Palestinians from taking place, a step necessary to assure peace for Israel. Here is a short New York Times piece on the problem. If you cannot read it due to a possible Times ‘paywall,’ send me an email and I will get it to you. It is an important article. But first try CLICKING HERE or visiting https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/briefing/how-israeli-extremists-won.html
While this Times article summarizes the situation, the full investigation upon which it is based appeared in the Times’ weekly magazine section. It is not a quick read but it is essential to understanding how it came to be that millions of Israelis stand in the way of what might be lasting peace there. (Months ago, Jackspotpourri offered a ‘two-state’ solution that addressed this problem.)
The Times Magazine article is in no way a pro-Hamas or pro-Palestinian piece, but it certainly attacks those who control Israel’s present government and who cannot deny partial responsibility for the problem.
The full Times investigation
in that article, stressing the failure of Israel to punish armed right-wing
extremists who ignore that nation’s laws, can be found at
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20240517&instance_id=123698&nl=from-the-times®i_id=78918068&segment_id=167012&te=1&user_id=02fa158150d34dc186b01b1b8ec7a224 or by CLICKING HERE.
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| Possibly illegal roadblock in Israel between Israeli and Palestinian communities |
JL
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You Will Be the Jury
My respect for the legal profession keeps sinking when I see some of the graduates of law schools ignoring the rule of law upon which this country was based. Some of them use the skills they learned there to obstruct that rule of law in the courtroom and some of the worst of them have been elected or appointed to public office where they specialize in obstructing legislation that supports such rules.
They have delayed litigation in Federal courts in Florida and the District of Columbia, and in State court in Georgia because they know that were this litigation to reach the trial stage, they would either lose there or even without losing, it would bring highly unfavorable information about the defeated, former president, currently running for the presidency in November, into the spotlight.
Similarly, even if they are able to avoid his conviction in the ongoing New York State case concerning ‘hush-money’ payments, enough unfavorable information about the defendant is being revealed to diminish his chances in November. That’s why, in their apparently losing efforts, his defense counsel’s efforts are primarily directed at discrediting the prosecution’s witnesses, there being little factually to contest. Facts are facts, and even liars occasionally speak the truth.
Which means that in view of deficiencies
in our legal system brought about by such lawyers, it comes down to five words
that describe how this all will end. On
November 5, 2024, YOU WILL BE THE JURY!
JL
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Quoting Hamilton and Franklin
A recent New York Times column by Charles Blow quoted Alexander Hamilton’s letter to George Washington in which he wrote that ‘the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the country is by flattering the prejudices of the people and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion and bring on civil commotion.’ That is exactly what the former, defeated president does!
Blow also quoted Benjamin Franklin’s words: ‘freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved and tyranny is erected on its ruins.’
Many years ago, these Founding Fathers knew the score, and their words ring clearly today. If they were alive today, where would they be interviewed? On Fox or on MSNBC?
JL
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The Dirt Strip
But enough of serious matters. Let’s take a look at what used to be our national pastime, baseball. The empty seats in many major league ballparks, contrasted with the full houses at NFL games, and the relegation of baseball news to the margins of the nation’s newspapers’ sports sections, are evidence of this demotion of baseball. But it still has millions of fans, of which I am one. So here follows a bit of baseball trivia:
In the English game of cricket, from which baseball may be loosely described as a descendant, there is a dirt strip running from the bowler’s (the pitcher’s) place to the defending batsman, so that a struck ball would bounce on a smooth surface. Early baseball games were played on existing cricket grounds with that dirt strip. Since there is always some foot traffic during a baseball game between pitchers and catchers, with umpires also sometimes making that trip, that dirt path avoided the problem of keeping the infield grass well maintained there, resulting in that strip surviving in many ballparks for many years.
Nowadays, teams don’t mind that extra work, but one major league ballpark (until recently there were two) still maintains that dirt path, probably for the sake of tradition. Five years ago, the Arizona Diamondbacks removed the dirt strip at Chase Field between the pitcher and the batter, but one Major League ballpark still maintains it. Can you name it?
And while on the subject of baseball, let me make it clear that I never root for a team that does not put the names of the players on the backs of their jerseys. Most fans can recognize their home teams’ players by sight, but this is not true of the visiting team. TV commentators don’t always mention them either unless they are at bat or pitching. I have always paid little attention to the New York Yankees because for years they have not included names on their jerseys. (The Mets’ jerseys, of course, do include their names.)
As of Friday, two New York Yankees had batting averages of exactly .269. Here are their pictures. One is recognizable as Aaron Judge. Can you identify the other guy? It's difficult without their names appearing on their jerseys.
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| Aaron Judge |
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| WhatsHisName |
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore has suddenly ceased. In their place, however, there have appeared large numbers of ‘hits’ on each posting in the hundreds, and as was the case with those from Singapore, but this time from Hong Kong! I suspect that the Chinese are playing around with internet transmissions, possibly to try to identify who is reading them.
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.
Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.
If you want to send someone the
blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or
you can provide a link to that address in your email to them.
There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog.
Either way will work, sending
them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or
clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.
Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. This is an election year. Spread the word.
JL
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